Mastodon's first full length album.The first press consists of two separate vinyl masters, one from Trutone Mastering Labs and a second from an unidentified company. The black 180g first press can be from either company so make sure to check the runouts in determining which copy it may be.

Recommendations

I can't speak about any of the other original presses. But this sounds exactly as it should in my opinion. Perhaps not better than the original CD version (haven't compared them yet) but at least 10x better than the remaster I have.

Why does Relapse Records not understand what a dedicated vinyl mastering is? Well to be fair I'm sure they do, they just don't care about sound quality seeing as how every piece of vinyl I have from them just sounds like it's CD counterpart.

Would pick this up if it weren't for the horrendous remastering job. The album had a much praised, uniquely produced, rustique and monolithic sound which is gone with this remaster. Now it just sounds like any generically produced, modern metal release. Clearly separated instruments and tampered EQ. I pity anyone whose first listen to this album was with the remaster.